Friday, November 16, 2012

False Vineyard

So Cindy and I were at Maduro’s in
Madison over the summer, enjoying their signature cocktails (a Monk’s
Summer for her, a Bird of Omen for me) when I spied a bottle of
liquor that was new to me. When I asked the bartender for a closer
look, he handed me a glass and poured a bit of the bronze-orange
liqueur into it. It was Pierre Ferrand dry curacao, resurrected from
a 19th-century recipe from Pierre Ferrand proprietor
Alexandre Gabriel and legendary spirit historian David Wondrich.
Unlike the saccharine orange syrup that passes for curacao today,
Ferrand’s version is wonderfully full of orange peel and dry spice
with a bit of bitterness on the end, perhaps like biting into a fresh
orange peel in the tropics. I bought my first bottle this fall; it
was gone before the break of the next day. It is great alone, but is
indispensable in classic cocktails that call for orange curacao or
triple sec.

For a Thanksgiving cocktail that
includes Ferrand dry curacao, try one we call the False Vineyard, so
named because it tastes remarkably like good white wine despite not
having wine in it at all.

False Vineyard

Holly's Originals

2 ounces genever gin (we used Bol's)

1 1/2 ounce St-Germain

1 ounce Pierre Ferrand dry curacao

1/2 ounce freshly-squeezed lemon juice

Shake all on ice and strain up in a
cocktail glass or double the recipe and pour into an iced Collins
glass. Enjoy with food or as an aperitif.